A Thinking Reed

  • Friday metal – bonus

    Just cause I feel like it and have been listening to this album today: Killswitch Engage, “My Last Serenade”:

  • Friday metal – Fishbone edition

    Okay, metal is a bit of a stretch, but there are definitely some metal inflections (along with funk, rap, reggae, etc.). More importantly, they’re just good. “Fight The Youth” “Sunless Saturday”

  • A theological argument for women’s ordination

    I’ve never really taken much interest in debates about women’s ordination – it’s always seemed to me to be a bit of a non-issue. I realize there are ecumenical matters at stake, but in sheer theological terms it’s not something I’ve ever particularly wrestled with. I’ve been a member of churches with women pastors and…

  • +Rowan on Dawkins, et al.

    See here for a streaming video of a recent lecture by Rowan Williams on the “new atheism.” Mad props to Richard at Connexions who was present.

  • Abortion on film

    Interesting review of the new abortion documentary Lake of Fire in this article (scroll down). I can’t say that it exactly makes me want to see the movie, but the idea of attempting to make a movie on abortion that treats both sides fairly is certainly a laudable one (link via Ross Douthat).

  • Thought for the day

    Sorry for the light blogging – work is v. busy. So, in the absence of original content, here’s a quote from an essay by Stephen R.L. Clark called “The Rights of Wild Things,” found in the collection Animals and Their Moral Standing: Stoic theory offers us the ideal of the World State in which men…

  • Christopher Hitchens: bridge-builder

    Unfortunately the bridge he wants to build is one between militant atheists and rabid right-wing warmongers. From the sounds of this report from a recent atheist/agnostic/freethinker conference, most of them ain’t buyin’ what he’s sellin’, to their credit.

  • Yet another presidential candidate quiz

    This one comes via the Lutheran Zephyr. The quiz ranks your candidate preferences based on your agreement on 11 issues: Iraq, Stem-Cell Research, Abortion, Social Security, the Line-Item Veto, Immigration, Energy, Marriage, the Death Penalty, Taxes, and Health Care. Here are my rankings: Dennis Kucinich – 40 Ron Paul – 38 Mike Gravel – 30…

  • Friday metal – unapologetic nu-metal edition??

    If there’s any sub-genre of metal more disdained than hair metal it’s got to be late-90s “nu-metal” (also sometimes called – somewhat inaccurately – rap-metal). While generally quite terrible, there were some decent bands that came out of it. I have a soft spot for this band and actually own two of their albums (this…

  • Freedom by cluster bomb

    Michael Gerson scolds critics of “President Bush’s democracy agenda” (he doesn’t mean Bush’s commitment to transparency and accountability here at home, by the way) and manages to write an entire column without mentioning the means supported by proponents of the “democracy agenda,” namely maiming and killing large numbers of people in foreign countries. See here…